The Forest of Love

Writer/director/editor Sion Sono's latest is based on convicted serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga, here renamed Joe Murata in the film and played exquisitely by Kippei Shîna with Sono's direction. Murder, masturbation, mutilation, self-harm, s&m, torture, gore, sex, control, extortion and more occur with irony, inevitability and imagination. Sono's masterpiece Cold Fish (2010) and grim & beautiful Guilty of Romance (2011) are also based on true stories, but let's be clear, his take on these stories are most likely far from reality. He is able to twist the facts to create details, dialogue, themes, strong characters and storytelling. Antiporno (2016) and Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) are his best stories not based on circumstantial facts and are perhaps even better because of it, although Cold Fish will remain one of the best and shocking movies for decades. (See my 2010 review: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2469898/) The movie is slow to start with a prologue and long chapter 1. We get to know the characters and dig into the childhood of two friends from an all-girl school. Some scenes are reminiscent of Suicide Club (2001) and Love Exposure (2008) yet darker and deliberate. On the other side, we are introduced to three young men filmmakers and finally, properly to Joe Murata after 20 minutes. Joe is both charming and alarming. An important scene from the shared childhood happens just before the 40 minutes mark. Chapter 2 (from 52 to 60 mins) is where the filming of Joe Murata's life begins for the film festival contest the students want to enter and is also where this film starts to take a new beginning by finally exposing Murata's penchant and proclivities. Chapter 3 (from 60-70 mins) is perhaps the best chapter as it confirms the power and powerlessness at play and will set the tone for the rest of the movie. Chapter 4 (from 70-127 mins) is a descent into depravity, absurdity, pity, envy, sadness and self-delusion with events after events of evocative imagery and daring directing. Finale (from 127-148 mins) still has plenty of surprises and worthy twists. The story will reveal more from all the chapters and the extent of the well-crafted piece will come to life. The second half and ending are positively well-worth to longish running time. Still, if you have not seen a Sono film with sex, violence and gore or are opposed to these ideas to be depicted in your living room, skip this Netflix Original and find something tamer. Thank you, Mr. Sono for staying true to your vision with this one. Now let's see what will come out of his first English-language film Prisoners of the Ghostland (2020), already in post-production, and how he uses sexy and talented Sofia Boutella to tell a tale he didn't write for once.

Guilty of Romance (2011)

"The Forest of Love" has a similar atmosphere to the Australian serial killer flick, "Snowtown". Both movies are about charismatic, endlessly manipulative psychopaths who insinuate themselves into the lives of people that have already been marked by tragedy. Both movies have that same feeling where you feel everything moving toward unspeakable tragedy, pain and suffering, and you're not sure if you want to keep watching.

"Forest" was made by Sion Sono, however, and he may be the most interesting, challenging, shocking filmmaker working today, so it's a different experience in some other ways, such as its non-linear structure, surplus of strange dialogue and unpredictable behaviour from the characters, and length.

It's not unlike "Midsommar" in these ways. The group surrounding the killer (who is lamentably based on a real person) is, after all, a cult. And the movie takes you prisoner with them, it seems. With its length and commitment to subject matter, like the Ari Aster film, "Forest" becomes more like an experience you are sharing with the characters, the usual gap between movie and audience no longer so apparent.

This is not just like watching a trainwreck happen. You're on the train with them.

It's strong stuff, but all fans of cinema that makes you feel something, whether or not it's a pleasant thing, need to check it out.

Sion Sono is a special director. He does things his way and his movies are quite weird mostly to say the least. So the first review (if you can call three sentences a review) I read here did not surprise me. And I don't even mean the low score (1/10), but the argument that was made that there are too many characters and you could not concentrate on one individual (hero?).

Maybe that can work as a warning. Either that other "review" or me mentioning it. Whatever the case, if you go in this, be prepared to see a meta take on the very infamous forest (this is not the first movie about it and surely won't be the last). There are many things going on and some may feel supernatural (this is what the forest is famously know for after all) ... but what is the mystery and what will it all lead to?

This film is like a sort of Sion Sono starter pack for a generation that hasn't grown up watching his output from 2000-2015. Its characters, situations, premises, visual motifs, even locations are all taken from films (some, not all - since Sono has also made films outside his regular violent, emotive, hyperactive, bat-crazy signature fares) from this era: Noriko's Dinner Table, Strange Circus, Love Exposure, Cold Fish, Guilty of Romance and Why Dont You Play in Hell to be precise. These six films, along with minor references to his other films, form of the universe of "The Forest of Love". Its characters fluidly pass from one film to the other. And together they establish the ethos that is a standard Sono film. In the hands of any other director this idea would appear too self-indulgent to execute. But Sono introduces a self-conscious metaphysical angle that tries to posit all the violence and insanity and torture as services to cinema, or his kind of cinema. "Jinsei wa Eiga!"- its characters proclaim not-so-subtly.

With a premise that is interesting enough to get his fans and newer audience hooked right from the start (no matter what follows afterwards), this film has a lot of memorable moments to offer. But sadly, for a fan, there's nothing essentially new. We have all seen this before, done better. The six films I mentioned - each of them are brilliant in their own ways because they exhaust their respective ideas both philosophically and in craft. In comparison, this appears little more than a list of checked boxes, like an already-established band playing their greatest hits on an overseas stage, rather than a new album.

6.5/10

Sono Sion is a prolific filmmaker. Ergo they can't all be hits. This one is deck definitely a miss. The lack of story is not conducive to the film's 2 hours and 40 minute runtime. The cinematography is not on par with his other films (ie: Cold Fish). The ending is also very disappointing. If you haven't seen any of his films, I recommend starting with Suicide Circle. Cold Fish and Why Don't You Play in Hell? are also good in different ways.